Johans Borman strikes a winning mix

By Patrick Burnett

It seems contradictory to talk about passion as the driving force behind buying a work of art while at the same time being strictly rational about the business side of selling art, but it’s a paradox that top art dealer Johans Borman straddles with ease.

Borman’s gallery – the Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery in Cape Town’s trendy Upper Buitengracht Street - boasts the likes of Irma Stern and Gerard Sekoto on the walls. But Borman is considered unique in that he is one of the few dealers in South Africa that has struck a successful balance between South African masters and contemporary artists.

“You can’t really develop guidelines,” he says, when asked about the balance, “it’s more a sense of being able to establish or to judge what is good and what is bad.”

That means having a thorough understanding of work in terms of the period, subject matter, style, market and the balance between the artistic merits and the desirability of any given work.

“At the end of the day,” he says, “it is still a commercial enterprise which means you have to be
able to find the most desirable to ensure that you are still able to get a sale.”

Reputation is everything. “To a very large extent its also about personal preferences,” he says, “I would find it very difficult to hang a painting in my gallery that I don’t like to a degree or think is of a good enough standard or quality.”

The combination of passion and business sense has taken him from a gallery in Pretoria in the late 1980s to his current gallery in Cape Town. Earlier this year he partnered Michael Stevenson and Michael Graham-Stewart at the Joburg Art Fair.

Borman shies away from art being promoted as a financial investment; for him it is simply created by artists to communicate and not as a financial instrument.

“I don’t encourage people to buy art because of the potential value; you buy art because you want to live with it, because you like it, because it offers you emotional stimulation.”

But the pricing of art, especially when it comes to the masters, means that it has to be considered as an asset.And if it is viewed as an asset class then that implies a comparison with other asset classes.Although art cannot escape downward economic trends, Borman says there is a “huge difference” compared to other asset classes because the market is more stable. The reasons are that there is passion involved and because art is sold for cash; in most cases there is no debt. The market is also small and at any one time there will only be one or two top
works for sale. In other words, there are not many people, especially in South Africa, prepared to swipe more than six noughts on their plastic.

Borman is hesitant to single out artists for special mention, but he believes that when looking at the masters, one should look for those who interpreted Africa.

“So many of our earlier recognised artists were simply applying European styles to African subject matter,” he says, “I would like to see the artist who interpreted Africa and did something unique.”

He counts Pierneef in that category, believes Irma Stern cannot be left out of the equation and reserves special mention for Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba and Ephraim Ngatane.
The black artists in particular are unique, he argues, for how they applied modernism as a European concept. “From an art historical perspective they were some of the first social realists internationally - and there Pemba and Sekoto were special.”
For younger artists who haven’t yet reached these heights, Borman says unfortunately in most cases it’s not a rational progression.

Great artists are almost born with a special talent, he says. But key factors are perseverance, recognising that every artist is a brand and being careful with who you allow to handle your work.

It’s clear that Borman has an understanding for both sides of his business, both the artists that produce the work and those who collect them.

“I’ve got a very clear idea of what the creative process involves and it very often takes blood, sweat and tears, therefore that means that I have a very great respect for it,” he says, “I also have a great respect for people that appreciate and collect art.”